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lUfltlary ©rirer of the ainaal Jlegfan 
0f the Mniteb States. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN BEATTY. 

At the Stated Meeting of the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal 
Legion held February 3rd, 1915, a committee of three was 
appointed to draft a fitting testimonial to the character and life 
of General John Beatty, a member of the Ohio Commandery who 
died December 21st, 19H. 

At the Stated Meeting held April 7th, 1915, the following was 
presented by said committee : 

Born December 16, 1828, Sandusky, Ohio. 

Died December 21, 1914, Columbus, Ohio. 

Buried Sandusky, Ohio. 

Companion John Beatty was no ordinary man as a civilian or 
soldier. He became a member of the Ohio Commandery March 4, 
1885, and died a member thereof. 

He was a typical citizen-soldier in time of war. Though not by 
early trammg, education, natural inclination, ambition or disposition 
prepared for the performance of the high duties of an army officer in 
war, yet his career in the Civil War exemplifies that character rarely 
found, save in a country like ours, where citizenship embraces heroic 
patriotism and personal devotion to duty and country, involving the 
supremest sacrifice— life itself. 

He had no element of nature that called him to war through ambi- 
tion for military glory, or for any of the plaudits supposed to come 
to an ofiicer who achieves success on the battlefield. 
.=.!^^ 5"tered the Volunteer army among the very earliest (April. 
]HL''' '"'Pr'", '° P'-esident Lincoln's first call for volunteers 
(75,000 men) April 15. 1861; then firmly believing the cause of the 
endangered Union was just, and that the rights of mankind were at 
stake,_ and not hesitating nor doubting as to his duty or the result 
especially when the issue as to the abolition of slavery in our Republic 
was well defined. ^y^uuc 

John Beatty's official relation to the Volunteer army of the United 
States covered a period of about three years-April 15, 1861, to March 
— , 1864. 

He organized a company and became its Captain in April, 1861- he 
became Lieutenant-Colonel of the Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry! 



April 27, 1861; its Colonel, February 12, 1862; Brigadier-General of 
Volunteers, November 29, 1862, for gallantry and distinguished services 
in campaigns and battles. 

He served under McClellan in now West Virginia, from June to 
November, 1861, covering campaigns from Clarksville through Buch- 
anan to Rich Mountain, where he participated in the first field battle 
of the Civil War (July 11, 1861); thence through Beverly, Huttonville 
to Cheat Mountain and the Tygart's Valley, from whence, after much 
severe service and exposure, he, with the Third Ohio and other troops, 
were transferred early in November, 1861, to Louisville, Ky., in Gen- 
eral Buell's command, where he served under Major General O. M. 
Mitchell, wintering at Bacon Creek, Ky., and he was in the advance 
in capturing Bowling Green, Ky.; Nashville, Murfreesboro, Fayette- 
ville and Shelbyville, Tenn., and Huntsville, Decatur, Bridgeport 
(battle April 29, 1862), etc., in Alabama, in 1862. He thereafter served 
with an important command in the Army of the Ohio and the Army 
of the Cumberland under Generals Rosecrans and Thomas, and par- 
ticipated in its movements and battles to the end of his service — 1864. 

He was distinguished for gallantry, especially, in the battles of 
Perrysville, Ky., October 8, 1862; Stone's River, December 31, 1862, 
and January 1 and 2, 1863; Chickamauga, September 19 and 20, 1863; 
Chattanooga, or Missionary Ridge, Tenn., November 25 and 26, 1863. 
He was particularly commended by Generals George H. Thomas in 
the battle of Chickamauga for his great skill and heroic conduct on 
Thomas' extreme left in holding back the persistent and repeated 
assaults there of the Confederates, while Thomas was solely holding 
his position on that bloody and disastrous field. 

He, with his command, from the Army of the Cumberland, joined 
General Sherman in his expedition, after Missionary Ridge, for the 
relief of General Burnside's imperiled forces at Knoxville, Tenn., 
December 4, 1863. 

Special acts of bravery or skill cannot be mentioned here for want 
of time. He, like other men of strong and right convictions of duty, 
exemplified them by action, in peace and war. 

Immediately after the disastrous battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861) 
was known to the Army in Western Virginia, in which he was then 
serving, he, in the sober privation of his tent, was heard to say: 

"Thus far we have pretended to fight alone to preserve the Union 
with slavery, and we do not deserve success. When we decide to fight 
for the universal liberty of man, including the abolition of slavery in 
the whole of the United States, we will win battles, and the God of 
Heaven will be on our side." 



He was a brilliant author of a number of books; and many valuable 
addresses and papers, always characteristically trenchant. Two of 
his books, "High Tariff and Low Tariff, Which?" (1899) and "Answer 
to Coin's Financial School" (1896), were severely political as well as 
business in character; they were widely read. Other of his books were 
so-called fiction or romance, but most of them were, in a large degree, 
historical. His precious little volume (published 1879), "The Citizen 
Soldier; or. Memoirs of a Volunteer," is a diary kept by him, faithfully 
setting down the ordinary and extraordinary occurrences and incidents 
of his military life, from June, 1861, to 1864, not exaggerating his own 
career, nor sparing himself or personal friends to abridge the truth. 
It is replete with actual incidents in officers' and soldiers' life in camp, 
on the march and in battle. 

His so-called novels, "Belle of Becket's Lane" (1882), "The Acol- 
huans" (1902), "McLean, a Romance" (1904), and "Uncle Peter Shed," 
are still read with interest. They deserve republication. 

The scene of the first-named is laid in Erie County, Ohio, near the 
place of his birth and early life. "The Acolhuans" cover a supposed 
history of a so-called race, more commonly called "The Mound Build- 
ers," who are believed to have inhabited much of now Ohio and other 
parts, and possessing something partaking of civilization. The book 
is of rare merit and interest and shows much research and a wide 
reach for facts, only possible to be obtained from physical indications; 
not supported by tradition, so completely had the race been exter- 
minated by succeeding warlike savage tribes. 

"McLean, a Romance," is somewhat historical, intended to give 
most interesting experience of an officer (Captain Driscoll, Cincinnati) 
of his regiment, in successfully making his escape from a Confederate 
prison. 

Enough has been said to enable the war-experienced companions 
of General Beatty to understand his brilliant services in the Civil War, 
and to enable all sound-thinking people to judge of his high business 
character, his great activities throughout a long life and to measure 
his usefulnes as a citizen of our great Republic in its period of transi- 
tion from a slave nation to one of universal liberty to all beneath its 
flag, now ornate with forty-eight stars, emblematic of that number of 
closely knit States in the Union. 

He was a devoted husband, father, son, brother, friend, neighbor 
and citizen. He is worthy to be classed among the truly great of 
Earth, and above those who fought to rivet chains of oppression for 
mankind, or for crowns for monarchical rulers. The world is the better 
that he lived. 



promptly told him to proceed with the search, adding that his trouble 
would come if he found "Joe." The search was not made; nor was 
"Joe" found. (He later was seen in Springfield, Ohio.) 

During a drill of his regiment at Huntsville, Alabama, 1862, through 
a purely accidental, incomplete order given by Colonel Beatty intended 
to cover a complicate movement, some of his captains obeyed it as he 
intended to give it, and others obeyed it as given. This led to confu- 
sion and caused the Colonel to publicly censure Captain House, who 
commanded the company on the right, who obeyed the order as given. 
On his attention being called, before reaching camp, to the order as 
actually given, he formed his regiment in line, rode in front of it, and 
said : 

"I publicly reprimanded Captain House when I was in error, and he 
was right. I apologize to him as publicly as I censured him." 

Only a great and highly honorable man has the moral courage and 
manliness to do such an act. 

Don't hastily reach the conclusion that he was not heroically cour- 
ageous in resenting a wrong or injustice done him, regardless of who 
the wrongdoer was. 

While in camp at Murfreesboro, Tena., and the Confederate army 
threatening an attack on Nashville, through an unfortunate failure to 
deliver to General Beatty an important order for some hours after he 
was expected to enter upon its execution, General Rosecrans (April 21, 
1863), commanding the Army of the Cumberland, violently assailed him 
in the presence of General Garfield and other officers, also soldiers and 
civilians, without waiting for or allowing an explanation. General 
Beatty yielded to this for the time being, and executed successfully 
the delayed order, but six days later wrote a fierce denunciation of the 
treatment to General Rosecrans, demanding of him "an apology for 
the insulting language addressed to him." The letter led to a per- 
sonal meeting and a more or less apology on General Rosecrans' part. 
General Beatty continued to serve in the Army of the Cumberland, and 
General Rosecrans was his friend, and later commended him for gal- 
lantry and distinguished services, especially on the battlefield. 

Beatty was justly recognized as a statesman and a business man. 
He was three times elected to Congress, House of Representatives, 
and served there most creditably three terms, from March 4, 1867, to 
March 4, 1873. He was a practical business man, always esteemed of 
the highest integrity. He was the head of a private banking institution 
at Cardington, Ohio, 1856 to 1873; and President of the Citizens' Sav- 
ings Bank, Columbus, Ohio, from 1873 to 1903, when he practically 
retired from business. He was an orator of much merit. 



Later, when, with Buell's Army, September 28, 1862, after its re- 
treat after Bragg's Confederate Army at Louisville, Ky., he first saw 
Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, dated September 
22, 1862, he joyously exclaimed: 

"Thank God, Final Victory will now crown our arms; 

Slavery will be abolished and universal liberty will be established 
throughout the Union." 

It must not be assumed that he did not laudably aspire to a good 
military record. In an impromptu address at a luncheon here March 
5, 1890, in his trenchant way, he said: 

"The most enduring legacy any man can leave his children, and the 
one they will esteem most highly, is a good military record. There 
is no man in this country, nor any other, so far as I know, so rich, so 
scholarly, so high socially, so distinguished politically, as not to take 
pride and pleasure in tracing his lineage back to a soldier. If there has 
been a soldier in the family it is the one thing the family never forgets 
— the one thing the family biographer never fails to mention. In brief, 
the father's military record is the son's patent of nobility, more valua- 
ble to him than a government patent for 640 acres of land. 

"I never envy the man who tells me his father or grandfather was 
rich, for his father or grandfather may have got rich by a lucky venture, 
by peculation, or by downright roguery, or he may have been a miserly 
old skinflint; but even if he got rich by honest methods it is no great 
affair at best, and nothing to boast of. But when a man tells me his 
grandfather was with old Ethan Allen at the storming of Ticonderoga, 
or with Washington at Valley Forge, I bow instinctively to the old 
man's blood running in the young man's veins, for I know he has some- 
thing nobody can take from either himself or his children — the spirit 
of the true knights and gentlemen of the earth. And this something 
is incomparably better than money, for when the money is squandered 
and has altogether disappeared, the memory of the father's heroism 
will glow like the morning star to light the son's way to brave and 
unselfish acts." 

General Beatty was of strong stock, so to speak, with some Irish 
blood; a brilliant intellect; quick to discern the truth and to despise 
falsehood; possessed of much equipoise, yet of unyielding disposition 
when he believed he was right, and on occasions capable of exhibiting 
much honest temper, but, above all, justice, fairness and honesty were 
his dominant characteristics. His heart was tenderest to the humble, 
needy or oppressed. He never was daunted by anybody, of high or 
low degree, when pursuing his duty. 

Some incidents in his military life will illustrate his spirit and char- 
acter. General Buell shortly after the taking of Nashville, February 
25, 1862, gave an order authorizing a man to search Colonel Beatty's 
tent and his regimental camp (3d O. V. I.) for a "runaway slave" (Joe). 
The man triumphantly presented the order to Colonel Beatty, who 



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His remains are buried beneath the soil where he was born, in the 
State that gave him home and honor, and in the nation whose integrity 
he fought to maintain, there to lie amid those who loved him and whom 
he loved so well, with the waves of the great Lake Erie echoing around 
them, there to rest until they blossom on resurrection day into immor- 
tal life. We may exclaim, in the words of Tennyson's Ode to Welling- 
ton: 

"Let the sound of those he wrought for, 
And the feet of those he fought for, 
Echo round his bones for evermore." 

J. WARREN KIEFER, 

W. L. CURRY, 

ALEXIS COPE, 

Committee. 



